1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to filing boxes and more specifically to a portable filing box for use by people having to keep an accurate account of business expenses, particularly travelling expenses carried by credit cards.
2. Disclosure of the Prior Art
Filing boxes of the above general type are known and are intended commercially for a wide variety of uses. They may also be used for private purposes for filing away household bills, receipts, important documents and the like. Regardless of its use, the box must be portable, sturdy, attractive and simple in construction so that it can be manufactured at low cost. A search of the prior art, concerned with the particular new features of the present invention as hereinafter disclosed, has been made which has revealed the following patents:
______________________________________ Canadian Patents U.S. Patents ______________________________________ 688,342 June 9, 1964 2,556,529 June 12, 1951 927,330 May 29, 1972 2,663,417 Dec. 22, 1953 1,030,918 May 9, 1978 3,672,490 June 27, 1972 4,375,263 March 1, 1983 ______________________________________
Of the above, U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,263 to Dworkin would appear to be the most pertinent as it relates to a compartmentalized file box for use as a working box for bank personnel and the like who dispense travelers cheques that are arranged in precounted security packaged amounts or bundles so that they may accurately and efficiently be handled. For this purpose, the box contains a plurality of U-shaped dividers of which the bottom or bight of each divider is secured to the bottom of the box while the side members or legs, that define the filing compartments, are hinged to the bight and free to flex with respect to the sides of the box, as in some large floor filing cabinets. While this flexing of the side members may be useful or necessary in this case, where papers in bundles are to be filed, the box can only be used with its bottom laying flat, as if it were used upright, the side members would deflect downwardly and the bundles would fall out of the box, should the cover be accidentally opened. The box is further of complicated costly construction and generally not suited for the filing of unattached papers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,672,490 to Desmarais discloses a box for storing slides. It involves a tray received in a box and formed with a plurality of partitions spaced lengthwise of the box and defining compartments. A series of U-shaped ribs project from the partitions and from the bottom of the tray, inwardly of the compartments, and serve as supports for storing slides which are of course otherwise self-sustaining. This arrangement would be completely unsuitable for storing flexible papers such as the thin credit card receipts which would rapidly fall off the ribs, considering further that the flexible papers may not have the necessary width to reach the opposed ribs and be supported by them.
Similar remarks apply to the disclosure of Canadian Pat. No. 1,030,918 to Berkman for use in storing magnetic tape enclosures. In this patent, the compartments intended to contain the magnetic tape enclosures are also defined by thin U-shaped ribs projecting inwardly of the compartments from opposed side walls and from the bottom wall of an insert mounted in the storage box. Again, while the thin ribs can easily retain the self-sustaining magnetic tape enclosures, they are unsuitable for the filing of papers.
The remaining patents cited above do not have any relevance with respect to the present invention and therefore need not be discussed here.